


May the Moon's Silvery Beams

by flashindie



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Bonding, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 02:30:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18228707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashindie/pseuds/flashindie
Summary: He’s gotta think like her, that’s the thing. If he were some primped, poised housewife, some Hallmark movie mama, where would he hide almost half a million dollars in cash? Carlos had texted earlier to say they’d found it at the sister’s place, taped up in a bag beneath the dining room table, and at the friend’s place in a hallway cupboard, but that doesn’t really seem like Elizabeth’s style.Set during 1.09: Shutdown. Emma wakes up when Rio goes to collect before the shutdown.





	May the Moon's Silvery Beams

For a family with four kids, Elizabeth’s house is almost eerily quiet at this hour of morning. Sure, there’s the remnants of chaos, the aftermath in empty lunchboxes and dinner plates drying on the dishrack, soccer cleats and knee pads slung haphazardly by the back door, but otherwise the place is remarkably untouched. 

Not that that’s going to last all that long with the way Cisco is opening every drawer in the hallway dresser, rifling through it loudly enough that Rio has to fix him with a death glare before returning his gaze to the living room. They’ve already checked the garage, the treehouse, the trunk of her car, places he thought would be a sure thing, but she’s surprised him before, and it looks like she’s set to do it again. 

He’s gotta think like her, that’s the thing. If he were some primped, poised housewife, some Hallmark movie mama, where would he hide almost half a million dollars in cash? Carlos had texted earlier to say they’d found it at the sister’s place, taped up in a bag beneath the dining room table, and at the friend’s place in a hallway cupboard, but that doesn’t really seem like Elizabeth’s style. 

He bites the inside of his cheek, still lost in thought, when there’s suddenly a complete, marked silence. Blinking, Rio turns around, eyebrows already raised in time to hear Cisco clear his throat and then tilt his chin pointedly sideways. Following the direction, Rio turns again, this time to meet a pair of familiar blue eyes, only on a much smaller, rounder face. The little girl is standing little and alone at the bottom of the stairs. She rocks on her heels, tilting her head, considering him, clutching a worn stuffed rabbit to her chest. She can’t be any older than Marcus – maybe even a year younger, but she stares with the sort of focus he’s used to seeing on her mother. 

“Who are you?” she asks, and just like that, Rio’s propelled into action. He strides forwards, crouching down in front of her so he can be at eye level and making sure to soften his face. Not that it’s all that hard – she really is sweet, with her mother’s blue, Bambi eyes and snowy skin, the dark hair must be from her dad, that button nose somehow all her own. 

“Rio,” he says, before tilting his head back in Cisco’s direction, never taking his eyes off the girl. “And that’s Cisco. We’re friends of your mama’s.”

She seems to debate this in her head, her lips curled into a tiny little frown. 

“Mommy’s sleeping,” she says, pointing towards Elizabeth’s downstairs bedroom. His gaze follows her outstretched hand, and he can’t quite fight the very-nearly-lewd grin that finds his lips at the thought of Elizabeth in there, curled up in bed, ruffled from sleep and blissfully unaware. 

“She must’a forgot I was comin’,” Rio says instead as Elizabeth’s daughter’s gaze turns promptly back to him.

“I’ll go get her.” 

And wouldn’t that be something? A part of him is tempted, but then he doesn’t really want to risk her waking up daddy too. He shakes his head.

“Nah, let her sleep. She must be real tired to forget,” he pauses, looking at her with a soft smile. He pokes a finger at her belly. “You ain’t told me your name yet.” 

“Emma,” with that, she holds the rabbit up so close to his face, so quickly, he almost ends up with a mouthful of cotton. “And this is Carl.” 

Rocking back a little, he puts a hand between them, gripping Carl’s paw and shaking it. 

“Nice to meet you, Carl.” 

Emma giggles, head falling sideways, all that dark hair of hers tumbling down like a cape. Taking the brief moment of distraction, Rio turns sideways to look at Cisco, gesturing for him to keep looking for the cash, but to stay close, before he turns his attention back to Emma. 

“Hey, maybe you and Carl can help me,” he says thoughtfully, and Emma bounces on her toes, a toothy smile on her face. 

“Yes!” 

“See, I’m supposed to be picking somethin’ up off your mama, but she forgot to tell me where she put it.” 

“Silly mommy,” Emma groans, and Rio nods in agreement, dropping his elbows to his knees and knitting his fingers together between them. 

“Silly mommy. Does she have a spot where she keeps special things?” 

And it must be a thing, because the way that little girl laughs is full of history and insider knowledge. _Bright kid_ , he thinks with a grin, watching her curiously. 

“Mommy says everything we have is special. If it’s not, we’ve got to give it away so it can be special for somebody else.” 

And it’s an effort, to stop his eyes from rolling hard out of his head. He mostly succeeds. He can’t stop the slight, exhaling laugh though. 

“Of course she does. What about things that might be a little secret?” 

Emma just looks confused at that, her lips pursed and her forehead furrowed. He gives her a minute, but then she looks down at the rabbit, pulls him up closer to her again, and he knows he’s losing her focus. He changes tact.

“Your mama been organising anything lately?” 

“She’s always organising,” Emma says with a pout, and Rio sighs in commiseration. 

“Yeah, I know. Pretty boring, huh?” 

Emma nods forlornly. 

“She do anything in particular recently?” 

And he needs to wrap this up. She’s getting fidgety, squirmy in that little kid way, like Marcus when he doesn’t want to do homework or when he’s getting bored, and Rio doesn’t have the time or the remote desire to deal with any incoming tantrums. 

“Maybe in the last couple of days?” he tries, and Emma scrunches her face up as she thinks. 

“The DVDs,” she says, pointing back towards the TV cabinet. Rio meets Cisco’s eye over Emma’s head, jerks his chin subtly and watches Cisco start towards it before he lowers his gaze back to Emma. 

“Anything else?” he asks. 

“She’s always organising the cereal,” she says. “Daddy says she buys too much.” 

“Yeah?” 

Emma nods. “She doesn’t even eat cereal. She always has coffee and yogurt and strawberries and honey. Danny found a moth in the Cheerios the other day.” 

“Yuck,” Rio says, scrunching up his face and Emma nods adamantly, her little eyes wide and serious. “Where’s mama keep the cereal?” 

Emma darts off and Rio gets up to follow her into the kitchen, watching her duck up to the counter and reach up onto her tiptoes to try and scramble up towards the counter. He picks up his pace, scooping her up below the arms and smiling when she giggles, turning her face towards him and saying, “Thank you.” 

She pulls open the cabinet with a clammy little hand, and true to her word, there’s got to be about eight boxes of cereal in there, all lined up in a row. 

“That is a lot of cereal.” 

Emma hums in agreement, and Rio turns her around to sit her on the counter, grabbing one of the older looking boxes of muesli while she kicks her legs out, heels bumping back against the counter, watching him. He gropes around the inside of the box, finally just opting to pull the plastic cereal bag out and peering inside. He can’t quite keep the grin off his face when he sees the wad of cash lining the bottom. This woman kills him, she really does. 

Then there’s a little face peering up beside him, trying to peek into the box. 

“What is it?” she asks, and he tilts the box sideways so she can see inside. 

“Just money,” he says, and Emma scrunches up her nose, laughing. 

“That’s a weird place to put it.” 

“It is,” he agrees. “Where would you keep it?” 

“In my piggy bank. It’s got fairy wings. Do you want to see it?” 

“Where is it?” 

“In my room.” 

“Sure,” he says, dropping the cereal box to the counter and holding his hands out to her. She giggles, practically leaping into them as he grabs her below the arms again and lowers her to the floor. She reaches out a hand, grabbing a hold of his and starts back towards the living room towards the stairs. 

He follows her amiably, catching Cisco’s gaze as he walks by. 

“Cereal boxes. Check everything in the kitchen cabinets.” 

Cisco nods, striding into the kitchen as Rio lets Emma take him up the stairs to her bedroom, her little legs struggling with the depth of the steps. She tugs on his hand a little harder as she does it, refusing to let go of her death-grip on Carl to hold onto the railing as well. 

They creep quietly down the hallway, and then slip unseen into Emma’s bedroom, flicking on the light. He remembers being a little impressed when they’d dropped Eddie in her bed at the scope of the room – it’s dainty wallpaper and mountain of stuffed animals, its princess dresser that somehow managed to escape garishness. He figured Elizabeth had an eye for detail in that way most white, suburban bitches pride themselves on, but the room almost looks like it’s out of a catalogue. 

Emma hops along brightly, introducing him to an enormous plush elephant (Louis) and the ugliest knitted cat he’s ever seen (Horseradish – a present from Aunty Annie), before grabbing the piggy bank off her dresser and showing it to him. It clinks loudly with pennies and dimes. Just like she said – it’s a pig with sheer, glittery fairy wings. He looks dutifully impressed. 

“I know,” she says proudly, shoulders back and chin up, and she looks so much like her mother that Rio laughs quietly, reaching for the back pocket of his jeans for his wallet. He pries it open, pulling out a clean hundred dollar bill, and folding it into the little coin slot in the pig’s back. 

Emma gasps as the note settles on top of the coins, blinking wide blue eyes at him. 

“What’s that for?” 

“For helpin’,” Rio says. “Your time is valuable. It’s worth somethin’. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” 

Her little face looks up at him in something close to awe, and he smiles softly, tilting his head back down to Carl, still hanging from her grip. 

“Carl looks pretty sleepy,” he says, and Emma blinks down at him. “You want to put him to bed?” 

She scrunches up her nose, and he works fast, gently easing the piggy bank out of her hands and putting it back on the dresser, before grabbing her and carrying her to bed. He lifts off the sheets and lays her down, covering her with her blankets. 

“Come on,” he says. “Gotta sleep now.” 

Emma pouts a little, but she wriggles down in the sheets, cuddling Carl close to her chest. She looks sideways briefly, and then turns quickly back to him. 

“You gonna wait for mommy to wake up?” she asks, and Rio blinks, gaze drifting to where she’d just looked, and sure enough, there’s a framed photograph on her bedside table of a toddler Emma cuddled up on Elizabeth’s lap. She’s younger in the picture, her hair longer, her eyes a little softer than he’s used to, one of her little boys hanging off her shoulders. 

“Not today,” he replies. “But I’ll see her real soon.” 

“And me?” 

Rio laughs, ruffling her hair. 

“Maybe not as soon, but yeah, I think I will.” 

“Okay,” Emma says, yawning and wriggling further down into the bed. He watches her for just a minute, this little prying slip of Elizabeth, bright and sweet, who looks just like her and not a thing like her, and there’s a strange, stretching part of him that wants to go downstairs and push open her bedroom door and just _see_ her. Though, he thinks, gut clenching in a way he doesn’t want to think about, she won’t be alone. 

“Night night, Rio,” Emma sighs, closing her eyes, and Rio smiles, reaching to turn off the light. 

“Night, chica,” he says, slipping out the door and back to work.

**Author's Note:**

> My first real fic from Rio's POV! :'-) 
> 
> Writing him with the kids is wayyy too much fun.


End file.
